I have two Sammie Sisters so I knew I would always have at least two bridesmaids. Of course I asked them immediately after getting engaged. This was before I discovered DIY wedding crafts and the hive. Now I have seen so many adorable and crafty ways to ask your ladies. I wish I could have a do-over.I wanted to ask them in a cute way instead of just blurting it out over the phone but the cards I DIY’ed were atrocious. Thank god I don’t have any photographic evidence of the cards but even if I did I would be too embarrassed to show you. I sent them a card (lets just say it was on computer paper folded a couple of times and handwritten) and two different books on being a bridesmaids.

I restrained myself from highlighting different passages in the book that I liked or thought were important....barely.

I waited a while to ask my other three bridesmaids and thankfully my DIY projects went up a notch (a small notch). For my two best friends from college I sent them ‘will you be my bridesmaids?’ cookies from The Flour Pot in Ambler, PA. Super cute and I left the DIY to someone else!

Smart all around! They both loved the cookies and said yes. For my final bridesmaid, I had to come up with something different because I plagiarized the bridesmaid cookie idea from her. I looked around etsy.com for ideas of cards or crafts. After looking at the prices it seemed a little crazy to spend that much on one card and shipping. Like many brides before me, I saw a cute card and thought to myself “I could do that.” I must have bridal brain because I don’t know any other time in my life when I have thought those words.

As luck would have it, I can do that! It wasn’t the most elaborate card that has ever existed but it the best card I have ever made (and only for that matter). The only thing I made sure to do first was to measure the envelope I had and then work from there. It was all on card stock and printed on my computer. I used card stock that I had around, glued it to the front of folded card stock and VOILA! It was good enough that she said yes!

So now I have 5 bridesmaids; 2 sisters, 2 friends from college and 1 friend from high school.

Anyone else ask their girls in a cute way? How did your first DIY project turn out?

I have the best Aunts in the whole wide world. The other day I came home to this:

What could it be?!?!

I don't think I ordered anything but sometimes I have shopping amnesia. I guess I will open it right here on the porch because I am A) too lazy to drag them inside and B) too excited!

Pickle Sandwich is so helpful. More than likely though she is trying to eat those packing peanuts and is going to get sick. Any ideas about what it could be?

After all the packing peanuts and bubble wrap were cleared, this is what I am left with:

MILK GLASS! I now have tons of milk glass to use for our centerpieces. All different sizes and shapes. I had casually mentioned to my favorite aunt (unless anyone else is reading and then you are my favorite) that I wanted to use milk glass and she delivered!! All my ATL aunts went on a milk glass scavenger hunt and sent me a miracle.

We last left off with our difficult (for him, not for me) decision where to have our wedding. Having it in Cape May, NJ seemed obvious when we looked at our criteria for our wedding location. He wanted something by the beach and I wanted it to be at an obtainable destination for our guests. Almost everyone will have to travel to our wedding but I don’t think it will impose a huge burden on our guests to get there (time will tell though, I am sure). Since we are having our wedding in a beach town, it seemed natural that our theme would be beachy or nautical. Even though I had always imagined getting married at our venue, I never dreamed of seashells or sand dollars as part of our decor.

I think those things can be lovely for different weddings but it was not something I imagined for my own. We like the beach and even contemplated getting married on the beach but having it as part of the decor didn't seem ‘like us’.

I am almost worried that people will get to the CucSandwich wedding and say ‘where is the sand, where are the shells’. Or perhaps they will think that I missed an opportunity to have starfish as my escort cards. For a while I flirted with the idea of some nautical elements. There were visions of a map here and a compass there but Mr. CucSandwich quickly nixed those thoughts when I showed him a set up.

His response was “but we don’t know how to sail nor have we ever been”. So it seems like we are on the same page about having decor that makes sense to who we are. I am hoping that everything at our wedding will be meaningful and not just because I think it looks pretty. Although I will probably find a way to justify it as having meaning even if it doesn’t....

‘Oh table bunting.... don’t you remember on our third date we watched a movie with table bunting and I mentioned how cute I thought it was?! No? Well I did.’ ‘Milk glass? Don’t you remember when we went to that restaurant for an important milestone in our relationship and the restaurant had milk glass?! No? Well it happened.’

Lemon Puppy strikes again! In typical Friday night fashion, the Lemon Puppy family is home enjoying the night on the couch. The Lemon Puppy got a rawhide bone that she had been working on for the last two days. She finally worked it down to the bottom 1/8th of the bone. We should have been paying attention and took it away from her but that would not have made a good story for my blog.

All of a sudden we hear a giant gulp. Mr. LP and I both look at each other in horror. Did she just swallow the rest of that bone?!?! Our fears are confirmed when we see her coughing and stumbling around looking like this:

Even the LemonPuppy has too much birthday fun!

She is stumbling all over the place and starts throwing up trying to get the bone out. Mr. LP and I are running around alternating between trying to save the rugs and trying to save the dog. While I run for towels, Mr. LP is attempting to get the Lemon Puppy off the rug because she is throwing up everywhere. Finally in a moment of clarity I yell at him "Forget the rug, you are going to have to reach in there a pull it out!". Better him than me ;)

Luckily it works and Mr. LP is able to dislodge the bone allowing her to get it down. She swallows a couple of times and the goes back to take over the couch like nothing had happened. Meanwhile she left a trail of grossness all over the living room and dining room.

I always thought the theme of a wedding was ‘wedding!’. At least that is what I wanted for my wedding theme. Now after being completely absorbed into the bridal blogosphere I realize how naive I was/am.

Even Mama CS is hammering it home that we need a theme. Our most recent conversation went a little like this:

Mama CS: “So I saw the cutest idea at another wedding. You should have sand dollars or starfish attached to your escort cards!”

Me (reverting to my typical teenage response): Meh

Mama CS: “What?!?! I thought that was cute.”

Me: “I don’t really want any beachy stuff like shells”

Mama CS: “Well then why are you getting married at the beach?”

Interesting question! Before I talk about our wedding theme I should probably fill you in on how we picked our wedding location since neither our families nor the CucSandwiches live there. We chose our wedding location by compromising. (We are so going to make it as a married couple!).

Mr. Cucumber Sammie wanted to get married on a distant tropic island on the beach. But I felt guilty making people travel that far just to see us get married. Plus it would be hard to get my 60 person immediate family to an island. Perhaps I would have felt differently if I wasn’t the oldest of my family and one of the oldest of my cousins. It will be the first wedding on Mama CS’s side of the family and I want to make sure everyone can attend. I knew Mr. Cucumber Sammie wanted to get married by the beach (why? I have no idea, you will have to ask him), so I suggested Cape May, NJ.

Cape May is where my family always went for vacation. Growing up outside Philadelphia, everyone went ‘down the shore’ over the summer and the CucSandwich family is no exception. Forget what you have seen on Mtv though, Cape May is nothing like the rest of the Jersey Shore. Take a look:

After a couple of visits to my childhood summer vacation spot, Mr. Cucumber Sammie decided with my gentle guidance that it would be the perfect spot for our wedding. Yay for us! We have a wedding location. Choosing the venue is a whole other battle, delightful way for us to work as a team. Don't even get me started on a theme.

So what does this long story have to do with our wedding theme or lack there of? You will just have to stay tuned to find out.

Has anyone else had a stereotype of their wedding location they had to overcome? Or did you just give in and GTL (gym, tan, laundry)?

Now that I have gotten ahead of myself by introducing you to our puppy first, let me rewind and allow you to meet Lemon Puppy’s parents!

nice to meet you too

Mr. LP and I met during/after college. I was during, he was after. For a while we were just friends but then I accepted a job working in a nearby department at said University. The friendship turned into him begging me to go out with him and he finally wore me down (just kidding Mr. LP; kisses). Our first date was a cute little bookstore in downtown DC. I told Mr. LP of course I know where it is, trying to act cool, but ultimately had no idea where it was and to take a cab what ending up being only 6 blocks from my house. He ordered chocolate beer off of a recommendation from the waitress and of course neither one of us wanted to admit it was disgusting. The rest, as they say, is history!

Mr. LP and I are different but go together like eggs and ketchup (have I mentioned yet that we L.O.V.E breakfast sandwiches and would eat them at every meal if I let us). He grew up near the coal mines of West Virginia and I am a suburbanite from just outside Philadelphia. He likes to get a ‘feeling’ about something and I am a researcher/list maker! He loves sports and I love Peyton Manning (only because he is cute). I can fall asleep at 9:00pm; 8:30 on a good night and Mr. LP can stay up late.

doing what I do best

For every difference we have though there are things that bring us together and make us perfect for each other. I can’t think of a better evening than Mr. LP snuggled up on the couch with me and the lemon (see first post) watching a movie. He inspires me to do/be better and I know I do the same for him.

We are planning an Oct. 2011 wedding in a NJ shore town without a seashell/sand dollar/anchor in sight. I am hoping to pull off a fall wedding without a fall theme and a beach wedding without a beach theme. Lets see how it goes!

My puppy is a lemon! I am waiting for the 'Cash for Puppies' program to begin so I can turn her in. Don't believe me, behold:

She is over a year old and still wets the bed (aka her crate). We can't leave her in there for more than four hours at a time. She definitely can't go to slumber parties with other puppies. She has been in a cone five times since we got her. That is about once every two months.

Lemon Puppy is constantly getting into ridiculous situations and mishaps. She is the Amelia Bedelia of dogs. There is always a story when I pick her up from doggy daycare. Last week the patient and understanding staff mentioned that she managed to not only get into the staff bathroom but lock herself in from the inside and before they could break the door down, get herself back out again.

Adventures in wedding planning, house owning, marathon running and trying to manage my Lemon Puppy who is chronically sick or injured. But if I am going to be honest, I am pretty lazy so you can bet on only one of those things happening on a good day.